MENIFEE: Commissioner misses sludge records deadline

A planning commissioner missed a deadline imposed by Menifee’s mayor to provide proof that biosolids have endangered public health in the city.

Menifee city clerk Kathy Bennett said Mark Matelko did not drop off documents at City Hall by 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 26.

Mayor Scott Mann set the deadline during a March 19 council meeting in response to Matelko’s claim that he had documents proving biosolids – commonly known as sludge – are hazardous.

So what happens now? The discussion of biosolids is over, according to an emailed statement from Mann.

“Going forward, we know which parcels in the city (where) permitted Type A sludge was applied for agricultural purposes,” Mann stated, “and we have in our Municipal Code a mechanism for additional soils testing should those areas be developed in the future.”

Matelko was not available for comment Tuesday. His wife, Janine Matelko, said she called City Hall a number of times to arrange for a sheriff’s official to accompany her to drop the records off, but each time she got no call back.

When the commissioner’s wife called city hall, staff asked her to have her husband simply send in the records, according to Mann.

Biosolids – fertilizer made of processed sewage sludge – were spread on some agricultural fields in Menifee more than a decade ago, though the practice ended in 2004 when the county limited its use.

To address concerns over the material, the city organized a forum on the subject. Government officials, such as John Watkins, the deputy director of the county’s Department of Environmental Health, showed where biosolids were spread in Menifee. David Crohn, an associate professor of environmental science at UC Riverside, said the risk of the substance causing harm to anyone is almost nonexistent – especially after so many years.

Critics have accused the city of staging the forum in order to reinforce their conviction that biosolids are not a problem in Menifee.

When Matelko made his statements on the dais during the commission meeting, he increased the gravity of the subject, Mann said.